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trailer* Centennial  JWe$$ 

Delivered  at  the  Commencement  of 
mills  College,  may  26th,  mi,  by 
Olm.  C.  Bartlett,  CL  D.  •  •  *  « 


QUARTER-CENTENNIAL  ADDRESS 


Delivered  at  the  Commencement  of  Mills  College,  Cal.,  May  26, 
1897,  by  Wm.  C.  Bartlett,  LL.  D. 


When  a  German  naturalist  in  exploring  the  valley 
of  the  Amazon  came  suddenly  upon  the  Victoria  Regia, 
he  saw  for  the  first  time  amid  the  uncultured  affluence  of 
nature,  the  one  supreme  blossom  of  the  world.  We  have 
come  alter  a  quarter  of  a  century  into  this  valley,  rimmed 
by  these  encircling  hills,  where  art  and  culture  have 
touched  the  landscape  and  a  nobler  inspiration  has 
touched  many  hearts,  molding  thern  to  inward  and  out- 
ward grace,  to  find  our  Victoria  Regia  here.  For  in  the 
closing  days  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  one  supreme 
blossom  of  our  civilization  is  in  that  culture  and  higher 
education  of  women  which  this  institution  illustrates  to- 
day. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  or  more,  the  site  of  this 
institution  was  little  more  than  a  cow-pasture.  The 
coyotes  barked  in  the  hills,  the  note  of  the  wild  dove 
accentuated  the  isolation  ;  birds  sang  among  the  alders 
and  the  brook  rippled  its  undertones  as  it  went  down  to 
the  sea.  So  it  had  been  for  a  thousand  years.  When 
the  founders  came  with  anointed  eyes,  they  took  account 
of  all  this  beauty  of  environment.  The  hill  sides  bour- 
geoned in  gold,  and  the  valley  blushed  in  many  shades 
of  pink  and  scarlet.  But  there  was  no  Victoria  Regia 
here.  There  were  long  years  of  patient  toil.  There  was 
not  a  college  dedicated  to  the  higher  education  of  women 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 
It  is  not  less  a  marvel  to-day  that  two  consecrated  per- 
sons working  as  a  unit  should,  with  no  large  fortune,  and 
with  no  large  gifts  from  outside  sources,  have  founded  a 
college,  given  it  to  the  public,  and  have  witnessed  a 
maturity  which  elsewhere  might  have  been  the  slow 
ripening  of  a  century. 

363! 


Said  Daniel  Webster  in  his  famous  argument  for 
Dartmouth  College,  with  suffused  eyes,  "  Sir,  it  is  a  small 
college,  but  we  love  it. ' '  If  to-day  there  are  some  to  say 
this  is  a  small  college,  there  are  more  to  say,  But  we  love 
it  for  what  it  has  been,  what  it  is  now,  and  what  it  will 
be  in  the  unfolding  future.  We  love  it  also  for  all  its 
associations.  For  the  granite  monument  that  crowns 
yonder  hill  top — the  symbol  of  the  imperishable  work  of 
Mills,  and  for  the  associations  of  Haight  and  Kldridge,  of 
Hells,  Dwinelle,  Bryant  and  Meek — of  Harmon  and 
Pearce,  who  having  accomplished  their  work  in  this  be- 
half, have  gone  home  in  the  ripeness  of  their  years  to 
eternal  rest. 

It  falls  in  with  the  spirit  of  the  day  to  group  with 
the  names  of  Atkin  and  Mills,  those  other  pioneers  of 
education  Durant  and  Brayton,  Veeder  and  Sill,  and  to 
say  of  this  noble  brotherhood  what  one  has  uttered  of 
another  : 

Oh,  my  comrades  !     Oh,  my  friends  ! 

If  this  parting  be  the  end, 

Then  will  I  count  my  life  divine 

That  I  have  known  such  souls  as  thine. 

It  is  related  that  in  one  of  the  fiercest  battles  of  the 
civil  war  fought  by  General  Thomas,  as  that  patient  and 
invincible  soldier  saw  one  of  his  brigades  as  it  was  march- 
ing up  a  hill  in  the  face  of  a  withering  fire,  their  ranks 
melting  away,  exclaimed  for  once  in  the  bitterness  of  his 
soul:  "They  can't  do  it!  They  can't  reach  that  hill 
top  ! ' '  When  one  of  his  staff  approached ,  laid  his  hand 
on  the  General's  shoulder  and  said  :  "Time,  General  ; 
give  them  time."  And  then  his  eyes  filled  with  tears  as 
he  saw  his  brave  men  stand  victoriously  on  the  summit. 
Some  of  our  friends  have  fallen  by  the  way,  but  the  hill 
top  has  been  reached.  Time,  patience  and  an  over- 
mastering faith  have  been  the  elements  of  victory.  The 
days  of  small  things  have  made  up  an  aggregate  of  great 
things. 

Emerson  somewhere  relates  that  his  greatest  ven- 
eration was  for  an  old  Quaker  lady  who  said,  yea ;  and 
when  all  the  world  said  nay,  she  still  said,  yea.  For 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  while  some  part  of  the 


[  3  1 

community  have  put  their  doubts  into  a  nay,  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  College  has  always  said  yea.  All  things 
worthy  to  go  on  record  to-day  have  been  done  with  a 
yea.  It  has  been  supplemented,  as  it  were,  by  a  divine 
affirmative.  The  everlasting  no  strikes  no  chord  of  per- 
manent achievement.  Said  a  noted  chieftain  to  one  of 
his  subordinates,  if  you  are  defeated,  you  will  return  by 
such  a  route.  I  shall  return,  said  he,  by  another  road, 
with  God  and  victory. 

By  virtue  of  this  yea,  the  landscape  has  become  more 
than  a  picture;  roses  climb  lovingly  to  porch  and  window, 
stone  has  been  laid  upon  stone,  academic  walks  invite 
to  high  communion,  and  there  is  an  annual  going  forth 
of  trained  minds  to  put  a  nobler  stamp  upon  the  life  and 
thought  of  the  State. 

All  higher  culture,  as  represented  here,  exalts  the 
office  of  home-maker  and  bread-winner.  The  two  are 
inseparably  joined;  for  where  the  one  is  not  found, 
neither  is  the  other,  save  in  some  intermittent  way.  The 
home  is  the  foundation  of  the  State,  Every  new  and 
well-ordered  home  strengthens  that  foundation.  And  the 
supreme  excellence  of  home  is  that  a  cultivated  taste 
therein  is  inseparable  from  morals  and  from  religion  itself. 
And  this  taste  is  sure  to  find  expression  as  well  in  the 
cottage  as  in  the  most  costly  mansion.  The  most  exalted 
ministry  of  life  goes  with  the  educated  woman,  whose 
creative  genius  has  filled  the  house  with  sunshine  and 
song,  with  art  and  inspiration,  and  with  beauty  and  love. 
Ten  thousand  homes  are  needed  in  this  State,  molded  to 
these  finer  issues. 

Numbers  do  not  determine  the  character  and  greatness 
of  any  educational  institution.  But  rather  the  quality  of 
the  training  which  sends  men  and  women  out  to  make 
their  record  in  the  world. 

There  is  a  substantial  advantage  in  being  well  born. 
Good  lineage,  with  a  little  blue  blood,  is  never  at  a  dis- 
count if  an  ancestral  name  has  been  worthily  borne. 

Oberlin  College,  chartered  in  1834,  gave  four  years 
later,  the  first  collegiate  diploma  granted  to  any  woman  in 
the  United  States.  From  that  college  a  few  years  later 
went  Mary  Atkins  to  Benicia,  and  there  established  the 


[  4] 

school  which  became  the  germ  of  this  institution.     That 
is  one  line  of  descent. 

Mary  L,yon  had  already  planned  the  Holyoke  Sem- 
inary and  placed  it  in  advance  of  all  others  for  the  facil- 
ities it  furnished  for  the  education  of  young  women  at 
the  smallest  cost.  She  had  planned  it  for  higher  educa- 
tion, putting  on  record  that  she  "  cherished  the  hope  that 
the  school  should  be  to  young  women  what  the  college  is 
to  young  men. ' '  Although  for  many  years  that  institu- 
tion was  content  with  the  modest  name  of  seminary,  it 
accomplished  the  essential  work  of  a  college,  and  was  the 
first  for  the  exclusive  training  of  young  women  in  that 
respect  in  all  the  land.  Long  before  it  took  the  chartered 
name  of  a  college  its  classical  standard  was  so  high  that 
it  needed  no  advance  in  the  final  transition.  Better  than 
all,  it  was  born  of  water  and  of  the  spirit.  From  that 
institution  came  the  President  of  this  college  with  the 
same  plans,  purpose  and  spirit.  The  seminary  should 
one  day,  as  Holyoke,  slowly  ripen  into  a  college ;  at  the 
same  time  conserving  all  its  more  elementary  advantages. 
These  are  the  lines  of  descent.  There  could  not  have 
been  a  better  lineage.  It  is  good  enough  for  ancestral 
worship.  All  memories  are  fragrant  as  rosemary  and 
rue.  Over  in  western  Massachusetts,  in  that  most  pictur- 
esque county  of  Berkshire,  hardly  two  hundred  miles 
from  Holyoke,  Mills,  one  of  the  founders  of  this  institu- 
tion, was  preparing  for  his  life  work  at  Williams  College. 
He  had  caught  the  inspiration  of  that  other  Mills  who  a 
few  years  before,  with  his  companions,  behind  a  haystack, 
had  prayed  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  into 
existence. 

These  associations  are  fitly  grouped  on  this  quarter- 
centennial  day.  It  may  be  that  they  count  for  less  here 
than  they  would  near  some  of  the  older  seats  of  learning. 
They  will  count  for  more  here  in  the  fullness  of  years, 
when  other  walls  have  been  reared  and  a  greater  throng 
of  alumnae  come  here  to  keep  the  day. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  century  the  standard  of  edu- 
cation for  women  was  very  low  in  this  country,  if,  indeed, 
there  was  any  standard  at  all.  Mrs.  John  Adams,  wife 
of  one  of  the  early  Presidents — herself  a  woman  of  many 


[  5  1 

accomplishments — said  that  "  female  education  in  the 
best  families,  went  no  further  than  writing  and  arithmetic, 
and  in  some  few  and  rare  instances,  music  and  dancing." 
That  condition  had  not  essentially  changed  up  to  the  first 
quarter  of  the  present  century.  Even  in  the  New  Eng- 
land academies — the  preparatory  schools  for  the  colleges — 
it  was  not  thought  quite  the  thing  that  any  girl  in  those 
days  should  follow  hard  after  her  clumsy  big  brother  in 
the  study  of  Greek  and  Latin.  If  by  virtue  of  an  indom- 
itable will  she  went  further,  the  college  door  which 
admitted  the  one  was  barred  against  the  other. 

The  first  High  school  established  for  girls  in  Boston, 
was  closed  for  a  time,  because  there  were  so  many  appli- 
cants for  admission.  The  public  was  as  much  astonished 
as  if  an  epidemic  had  suddenly  broken  out.  What  was 
the  world  coming  to  when  young  women  wanted  to  know 
as  much  as  young  men  ?  It  was  an  early  symptom  of 
that  coming  recognition  of  the  equality  of  educational 
rights.  One  after  another  the  barriers  would  be  broken 
down.  Even  at  old  Harvard  there  would  some  day  be  an 
annex  where  young  women  could  look  over  into  the  col- 
lege preserves,  and  if  after  years  of  study  they  were  found 
to  know  as  much  or  more  than  young  men,  they  could 
have  a  diploma  instead  of  a  degree. 

A  quarter  of  a  century,  or  more,  after  Mary  L,yon 
had  expressed  the  hope  that  Holyoke  would  be  for  young 
women  what  the  college  was  for  young  men,  Mathew 
Vassar,  as  if  inspired  by  that  very  declaration,  in  the 
same  language,  expressed  the  hope  that  in  founding  Vas- 
sar College,  it  '  'should  accomplish  for  young  women  what 
our  colleges  are  accomplishing  for  young  men."  The 
spirit  of  Mary  I,yon  finds  expression  in  this  wealthy  and 
uncultured  business  man. 

"  Our  chief  want  in  life,"  says  Emerson,  "is  some- 
body who  shall  make  us  do  what  we  can.  That  is  the 
service  of  a  friend.  With  him  we  are  easily  great. 
There  is  a  sublime  attraction  in  him  to  whatever  virtue 
there  is  in  us.  How  he  flings  wide  the  doors  of  exist- 
ence!" 

The  declaration  of  equality  of  educational  rights 
was  the  herald  of  the  new  era  in  the  last  half  of  the  nine- 


[  6  ] 

teenth  century.  Men  and  women  emerged  from  the 
bondage  of  old  traditions  and  went  out  into  the  broader 
fields  of  human  activity.  Equality  of  educational  rights 
would  sooner  or  later  evolve  equality  of  political  rights. 
There  was  a  time  of  blossoming  for  a  new  intellectual 
fruitage.  From  that  springtime  blossoming  came  Holyoke 
and  Vassar,  Bryn  Mawer,  Wellesley  and  Smith,  and  Bar- 
nard and  Mills.  The  newer  universities  adopted  the 
system  of  co-education.  But  that  expedient,  so  far  from 
meeting  the  new  demand,  only  made  these  separate  col- 
leges for  young  women  a  greater  necessity. 

You  cannot  tell  how  much  light  a  diamond  will 
reflect  until  all  the  facets  have  been  cut  and  polished.  It 
is  not  the  half-round  culture  which  the  new  era  demands 
for  young  women,  but  many-sided  and  symmetrical  as 
to  the  whole  ;  and  every  angle  so  polished  that  it  makes 
for  sweetness  and  light.  That  culture  consists  not  only 
in  having,  but  in  being,  and  imparting  and  in  working 
up  to  the  noblest  ideals  of  life.  It  makes  for  the  largest 
increase  of  life.  It  takes  account  of  gracious  manners,  of 
winning  conversation,  of  art  in  all  its  forms  and  colors, 
of  philosophy  which  gives  the  reason  of  things,  of 
the  wealth  of  classic  tongues,  of  the  symbols  which 
represent  the  small  dust  in  the  balance  and  which  may 
stand  for  the  measurement  of  a  star  in  the  heavens  ;  and, 
more  than  all,  for  the  friendship  of  God  which  lifts  faith- 
ful and  steadfast  souls  up  to  His  communion  and  love. 
If  there  is  any  lower  ideal  so  that  heart  culture  is  left  out, 
womanhood  is  eclipsed  by  a  selfish  isolation. 

There  is  a  symphony  of  Haydn  full  of  rich  expres- 
sion at  first ;  but  one  by  one  the  players  cease  and  go 
silently  out  until  only  one  is  left  upon  an  empty  stage,  in 
solitude  and  darkness.  The  last  note  is  the  climax  of 
emptiness  and  desolation.  There  is  the  literal  fulfillment 
of  Haydn's  symphony  where  isolated  selfishness  becomes 
the  highest  ideal  of  life.  Sympathy  and  love  die,  the 
notes  fail  on  many  strings,  and  the  richer  music  of  life 
subsides  into  a  wail  on  a  desolate  stage.  Fullness  of 
life — the  full  orchestra  of  the  soul  responsive  to  human 
interests — the  ministry  of  souls  making  a  better  world 


[  7  ] 

through  sacrifice  and  love  and  eternal  hope.     That  is  the 
ideal  of  rounded  and  symmetrical  culture. 

It  is  not  many  years  since  the  proposition  was  boldly 
challenged  that  what  was  good  for  men  in  the  way  of 
attainment,  was  good  for  women.  How  can  you  expect 
delicate  young  women  to  endure  the  hardship  of  college 
study  and  discipline  ?  They  will  all  break  down  or  fail 
by  the  way,  said  many  a  conservative  holding  fast  to  his 
ancient  traditions,  It  was  reserved  for  a  woman  to  fur- 
nish this  pungent  answer : 

' '  I  would  like  you  to  take  thirteen  hundred  young 
men,  and  lace  them  up,  and  hang  ten  to  twenty  pounds 
of  clothes  on  their  waists,  perch  them  on  three-inch  heels, 
cover  their  heads  with  ripples  and  chignons,  and  stick 
ten  thousand  hair  pins  into  their  scalps.  If  they  can 
stand  all  this  they  will  stand  a  little  L,atin  and  Greek." 

What  is  most  needed  to-day  is  a  new  and  incarnated 
public  conscience.  Never  before  have  thoughtful  and 
educated  women  grasped  the  great  public  questions  of 
the  day  as  now,  nor  have  they  touched  the  questions  of 
social  life  with  such  plastic  force.  Without  a  ballot,  they 
are  shaping  legislation  and  furnishing  new  ideals  of 
citizenship.  What  a  large  place  there  is  to-day  for  this 
potential  and  beneficent  work  ! 

Said  a  notable  scholar  and  critic  not  long  ago  :  ' '  The 
prevailing  spirit  of  the  country  as  shown  in  its  public 
utterances,  in  its  journals,  in  its  poetry,  and  in  its  politics, 
is  not  promising,  it  is  not  modest,  it  is  not  serious,  it 
is  not  large  minded,  and  it  is  not  high  minded.  It  is 
evolved  from  lower  ideals  which  have  made  mediocrity 
the  rule,  and  excellence  in  all  the  walks  of  citizenship  the 
exception." 

There  is  a  day  coming  when  there  will  be  new  and 
nobler  ideals  of  citizenship.  Back  of  this  coming  revolu- 
tion is  the  trained  and  thinking  woman.  Hardly  a 
recognized  force  in  molding  public  opinion  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  to-day  bringing  her  conscience  and  quick- 
ened intelligence  to  the  solution  of  some  of  the  most  vital 
problems  of  the  age.  The  new  investment  of  civil  rights 
will  come  as  sure  as  there  is  the  slow  march  of  a  clarified 
j  ustice  and  a  divine  j  udgment  in  the  world.  Social  science 


[  8] 

is  the  order  of  the  day  ;  but  it  may  not  illustrate  its  best 
equipment  by  clamoring  from  platforms,  nor  by  the 
exhibition  of  imported  freaks  for  the  delectation  of  popu- 
lar assemblies.  The  great  moral  and  social  forces  of  the 
world  are  not  the  less  potent  that  they  work  silently  and 
beyond  the  range  of  common  observation.  If  we  cannot 
trace  the  rivulet  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks,  has  it  less 
creative  power  when  it  heads  in  the  spring  and  carries  its 
line  of  life  down  to  the  making  of  gardens  in  the  desert  ? 
All  higher  education,  as  illustrated  here  and  elsewhere, 
is  a  training  for  leadership  in  thought  and  action.  It 
may  not  extend  beyond  the  small  town  or  village.  But 
what  potency  it  may  have  there,  where  in  many  in- 
stances the  sorcery  of  Circe  counts  for  more  than  the 
winning  power  of  the  saint  ! 

Said  a  Greek  philosopher,  I  dwell  in  a  small  city  that 
it  may  not  become  less.  Wherever  one  of  these  who  has 
been  trained  here  shall  abide  the  little  city  or  town  shall 
not  be  less,  but  more  for  her  presence.  Nor  may  her 
leadership  be  less  that  it  is  veiled  by  the  beauty  and 
fragrance  of  a  life  toward  which  the  young  are  drawn 
with  rythmic  steps  for  gentle  ministries — for  words  that 
are  like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver. 

The  end  of  all  training  is  consecrated  power.  When 
Michael  Angelo  became  old  and  blind,  he  asked  his 
servant  to  lead  him  forth  that  he  might  touch  the  marble 
torso  of  Phidias,  Passing  his  hand  over  the  statue,  he 
entered  into  the  life,  the  thought  and  the  inspiration  of 
this  greatest  of  Grecian  masters.  Not  the  touch  of  any 
marble,  not  the  broken  statue,  nor  the  mold  of  divinest 
form  can  inspire  these  highest  ideals.  That  inspiration 
comes  when  we  are  led  forth  to  enter  into  the  life  and 
spirit  of  Him  whose  ideal  of  citizenship  is  of  both  the 
earth  and  the  heavens.  Working  in  that  spirit,  for 
teacher  and  scholar,  for  singer  and  sayer,  the  horizon  lifts 
and  broadens,  and  evermore  there  is  the  promise  of  the 
life  that  now  is,  and  fruit  unto  life  eternal. 


Gay  lord  Bros. 

Makers 


YC   15434 


Syracuse 


N.Y. 


MLJH.II.*" 


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